SWTFW 13 - "Put Up Your Dukes"

A Chapter by dw817

Rebecca laughed a bit. "You, Luke ? Well if I have to say it, I will. You're CUTE ! Really nice, you know ? I like you. You're not at all like him. He treats me like I'm his property and stuff."

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THE FORCE WITHIN
© June 2017 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission

CHAPTER 13 - "PUT UP YOUR DUKES"
[ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER ]

* * *

This entry is Rated: EVERYONE

Duke's ship glided neatly around Rebecca's frail craft.

Suddenly it turned to face its afterburners directly in its path in hoping of burning it to a crisp. But Rebecca was prepared and quickly hitting some buttons on the side of her arm, her ship easily moved out of its path.

Duke burned his afterburners for several seconds. Then a transmission appeared on both hers and Luke's speakers.

"You know I'm always hot for you, babe."

Rebecca answered in a cross tone, "Yeah, well you missed. Much like you miss everything else, including the toilet !"

Duke growled over the speakers but was silent. Then his massive ship turned to face directly at Luke.

"Who's your new boyfriend ?"

Rebecca defended Luke, "We are just good friends, alright ? So do you even have any reason for being here or is this just your scheduled harassment of the week ?"

Duke coughed uncomfortably over the speakers for a moment. Then he spoke, "Yeah, well, you know, all that Duranium is worth quite a bit. I suppose you want to claim this sector for yourself, right ?"

Rebecca nodded angrily, "Darn tooting I do. Look, if you're just here to gawk, why don't you go back to your little pad and drool over all the secret photos you've been taking of me you think I don't know about !"

Duke laughed for a moment. "Oh, you saw me, huh ? Yeah, well ..." and then he couldn't say anything.

Finally he sounded apologetic, "Look, we could always split the Duranium here, 50/50. Maybe even pick up where we left off ? Whaddya say ?"

Rebecca shrieked now, "Notta chance ! Now GET out of here, you perv ! Before I tell the authorities you've been harassing me again."

The speaker was then silent. Pretty much like a whipped dog, Duke's massive craft retreated, almost as if it were afraid of her. Then warped out.

Luke spoke now, "What was that all about ?"

Rebecca could've just brushed it off but decided to explain, "That - man, Duke, I was his girlfriend at one point. But he is so crude and uncivilized and such a womanizer ! I finally couldn't stay with him. And even though we broke up years ago, today he still doesn't seem to get the hint that I never want to see him again. There is also a restraining order against him."

She continued, "One word from me and the authorities will take that pretty spacecraft of his and impound it leaving him and his brothers, also on that ship, marooned to the nearest planet."

She looked to see the last place where Duke's ship was. "I'm surprised he's brave enough to try and confront me here today with that still hanging over his head."

Luke looked down at the lights in the helmet below his chin, somewhat concerned. "And what about me ?"

Rebecca laughed a bit. "You ? Well if I have to say it, I will. You're CUTE ! Really nice, you know ? I like you. You're not at all like him. He is just so darned assertive all the time, having to have things his way or not at all. Treating me like his property."

Her voice softened. "You ? You ask me if it's okay to tie your shoelaces."

Luke's eyes widened, "That bad ?"

* * *

Rebecca tittered, "Well, maybe not that bad. But anyways, you get the idea. Say, let's finish up here and I'll make you a real home-cooked meal back at my pad, okay ?"

"Can't pass that up." Luke said. And then they scoured the area of the disintegrated Death Star to find the remaining chunks of value and floating Duranium.

. . .

Back on Yavin's moon, all panic had broken out. While no-one had died, not yet, it was clear there was a shortage of breathing equipment. Many people came to this moon in hopes of growing old and comfortable here and didn't bother with emergency atmospheric supplies.

Now with the sky and air tainted by sulfur by Vader's earlier actions, a real danger existed to those unprepared !

Jan sent out a planetwide distress call for any able bodied space pilots to assist in the evacuation of the poisoned moon. A few did arrive, but only a handful compared to those pilots who were actually out there.

And not without reason. This particular brand of sulfur was so strong that unless you knew how to travel through it, which was very carefully and slowly, the very air could dissolve your wings before you could either land or take off.

Emergency vehicles padded down with oxidized Duranium, a natural deterrent against toxic chemicals, tore out of the main complex to pick up suffering citizens and prepare them for space flight to the next chosen destination.

And as of yet where everyone was going to escape to, to get away, was not known. Jan was deciding this in a meeting with the remainder of those in charge on the moon.

. . .

Vader and his remaining Empire pilots back out in space watched with great amusement to see the main city on the moon start to crumble under the relentless acidic properties of the sulfur.

But after watching for several minutes, Vader turned his attention back to the original mission, to find this space pilot that was so strong with the force. His own senses told him that he was on this moon, if for a short while, but had taken off again. And unlike most people he could track, this one left no vapor or trail to follow. It was puzzling. And Vader didn't like puzzles.

He sent the remainder of his ships, including Smite to carefully scan all around the moon to see if there were any trails that could be followed from a single X-wing fighter craft. It had to be this Vader told himself.

Several long minutes later, Smite address Vader.

"Yes ?" Vader asked.

Smite spoke, "I am getting a trail like you are looking for - only - there is a problem."

"And that is ?" Vader questioned in his sepulchral tones.

"The signature left behind. It could only be a mal-warp. Whoever you are looking for did indeed take off from this moon, but from there they created a wormhole from a bad warp, scattering indications of their actual direction and destination. That's why we can't track your target - not with the limited details we have here, Vader."

"Send me what you have." Vader ordered.

Smite nodded, hit a few buttons, and transmitted all the collected information to Vader. Then respectfully flew his craft behind Vader's and awaited further orders.

Vader looked at the sent data carefully. An easy trail left from the moon, then the error in warp, then nothing.

He rapidly typed in a program to account for all variables. Space travel through wormholes was a tricky thing, and oftentimes only the incredible power of computers could actually track those who entered them.

The program he wrote clicked and hissed and whirred as it sifted through thousands of terabytes of data. Planet and moon names appeared by the hundreds on the screen as signals were sent out to "catch" relays by orbiting satellites allowing admission to land on planets. Then to triangulate those results to the only craft he could've taken to get there.

Finally the machine settled on one destination that matched exactly what Vader was looking for.

He leaned forward, creaking his heavy leather costume to read the screen.

Tatooine.

Vader smiled, hidden beneath the death mask. The same place the R2 unit with plans to the Death Star was thought to be. It couldn't be a coincidence ! If he could catch and control this pilot, sway him to the dark side of the force, he would indeed have a worthy ally for the Empire.

But he couldn't go in all guns a-blazing. The Empire and Tatooine had a peace treaty, and as much as Vader would love to go against it, he was ordered by HIS master, Palpatine, to retain peaceful relations to maintain good trade and commerce.

It wouldn't do for Vader and his battle fleet to arrive at the designated planet. Despite not firing a single gun, they could claim unwarranted aggression, which would also dissolve the treaty.

Vader spoke in the intercom, "Smite. Come with me. The rest of you, return back to the Star Destroyer. Your work for me for now is done."

More than a sense of ease was felt by the remaining Tie-Fighter pilots. They saw how Vader mercilessly sacrificed 3 of the pilots to cause the chemical reaction on the moon. With as much courtesy and haste as could be managed, they beat a path away from Vader's familiarly curved winged ship leaving only Smite in his standard craft behind.

Vader addressed the intercom, "Smite. We are going to Tatooine. We are looking for a space pilot, really a boy, who is strong with the force. We will separate when we get there. If you find him before me, let me know. We're off !"

And with that both dark ships entered light-speed to make the journey to the neutral planet in search of Luke.

(to be continued)

END OF CHAPTER 13